A Special K Trip Part 3 – Ketamine for Analgesia & Tranquilization

And now for the conclusion of the 3-part ketamine series with Reuben Strayer. Today’s episode is Part 3 focusing on Ketamine for analgesia and extremely uncontrollable violent patients.

If you haven’t already, go back and listen to Episode 7 where Reuben talks about ketamine and how different dosing can have different applications in the ED setting. In Episode 8, Reuben talks about ketamine for PSA & RSI.

Ready to continue with your Ketamine trip w/Reuben? Here we go!

Ketamine for Analgesia

Who gets ketamine? Chronic pain, poly trauma, oncology pain, etc.

Dosing

0.3mg/kg

0.1-0.3mg/kg have been used.

No pumps for bolus dose? No problem.

Of course, administering through a pump will always be the gold standard.

How to administer:

Inject the analgesic dose into NS 100mL and infuse over 15 minutes.

15 minutes = 400mL/hr (best!)

10 minutes = 600mL/hr (not much difference)

Why are we diluting the ketamine dose for administration? To prevent psychiatric emergence or your patient from “freaking out.”